At least eight dead in suicide attack on Nigerian church

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- At least eight worshipers were killed Sunday in a suicide attack on a Roman Catholic church in northern Nigeria, according to officials. About 100 other people were injured, raising fears the death toll could rise.

Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency confirmed in a statement Sunday that eight people died in the blast in Kaduna. No group claimed responsibility; however, the attack bore the hallmarks of previous terrorist attacks by the Islamist insurgent militia Boko Haram, which models itself on Afghanistan's Taliban and wants to impose Sharia law across the country.

“A number of casualties were evacuated to hospitals. The incident was suspected to be triggered by a suicide bomber in a car which relevant security agencies may soon determined,” NEMA spokesman Yushau Shuaib said in the statement.

The bombing follows a string of deadly terrorist attacks in the north, many targeting churches. Extremists also have launched assaults on police stations, burned schools, bombed automatic teller machines and assassinated politicians.

$5 million prize for former African leader goes to ... no one

Millions of dollars hung in the balance as a committee huddled in London, trying to decide which former African leader was worthy of their hefty cash prize. Monday, they announced which government head  won.

Nobody.

For the third time in its six years of existence, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation prize committee scanned Africa and decided nobody met the bar for its coveted award, which includes $5 million paid out over a decade and an additional $200,000 annually for life.

The plush prize is supposed to nudge African leaders to serve well -– and serve only so long. It cannot be granted to leaders who illegally cling to power. Only leaders who have left office in the last three years, serving no longer than their constitutionally mandated terms, can get the cash award.

The Mo Ibrahim Foundation eyed “a number of eligible candidates,” it said Monday, “but none met the criteria needed to win this award.” Its chairman and namesake, a British billionaire born in Sudan, told the Associated Press the committee wouldn’t “go through the motions to just find anybody.”

The foundation, launched six years ago, aims to promote good governance in Africa, which has made strides toward stronger democracy but is still speckled with countries where power stems from military coups, corruption or brutality. Last year it honored former Cape Verde President Pedro Verona Pires for bolstering democracy; before that, it didn’t honor anyone for two years in a row.

Ibrahim argued the decision was not a disappointment, but a sign of exceedingly high standards. The foundation gave no details about why nobody was chosen. Despite what Ibrahim said, not handing the prize to anyone was widely seen as a dismal mark for the latest round of African leaders to leave power.

“Good governance is a rather hard sell in Africa,” the Daily Nation in Kenya editorialized ruefully, “because some leaders believe their survival is synonymous with that of their countries.”

Assailants kill at least 25 students in northeastern Nigeria

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Unknown assailants killed at least 25 polytechnic students in  northeastern Nigeria, invading the campus dormitory and shooting or stabbing their victims, authorities said Tuesday.

The  attack at Federal Polytechnic Mubi, in the town of Mubi in Adamawa state came as police press to curb violence attributed to the Islamic rebel militia, Boko Haram, which is active across much of northern Nigeria.

Last week, police rounded up more than 150 suspected members of Boko Haram. Authorities also claimed they killed Boko Haram spokesman Abu Qaqa in the raid and seized many weapons as part of a wider crackdown in northern Nigeria designed to wipe out the militia. Boko Haram acknowledged Qaqa had been arrested by security forces, but denied he was killed.

Authorities also speculated that the attack at the polytechnic institute may have been linked to rival political factions there, after a recent student election. Campus politics, like local, state and federal politics in Nigeria, is often violent, though massacres are not common.

Nigerian media reports said assailants ordered students to line up  and give their names. Some were killed and others released.

Mubi reportedly has a mixed Christian and Muslim population, with victims from both faiths.

Boko Haram, which opposes secular education and secular governance, has attacked banking automatic teller machines, cellphone towers, schools, churches, mosques and police stations in recent months. It has destroyed some 30 mobile phone towers in northern Nigeria, crippling communications in some areas. The militia frequently assassinates Nigerian politicians and religious figures.

The rebel militia is responsible for more than 690 killings this year, according to the Associated Press, which keeps a count of deaths from attacks. The group made no  statement claiming responsibility for  the attack Tuesday.

Danjuma Aiso, a student who fled the polytechnic college, said a statement  had been circulated in recent days warning students to leave the institute, the Associated Press reported.

The institute has been closed temporarily.

ALSO:

Live from the Holy Land ... our rival's logo!

Hong Kong police arrest 7 after harbor collision kills 38

Amnesty International to Egypt: Stop 'bloody' legacy of repression

-- Robyn Dixon

Photo: The gate of the federal polytechnic school in Mubi, Nigeria. Credit: AFP / Getty Images

Muslim women on pilgrimage from Nigeria detained in Saudi Arabia

This post has been updated. See the note below for details.

More than 1,000 Muslim women from Nigeria on a religious pilgrimage to Mecca have been turned away or detained in Saudi Arabia over allegations they weren’t traveling with husbands or other suitable male guardians, according to Nigerian news reports.

Nigerian media reported Wednesday that 171 women pilgrims were deported from Medina and hundreds more were being held after arriving at a Jidda airport. A Nigerian official told the Associated Press on Thursday that more than 500 women were returning to their country after being refused entry to Saudi Arabia.

Women from Nigeria had reportedly been allowed in the past to make the pilgrimage with Nigerian government officials instead of a husband or male relative. In Saudi Arabia, women are expected to have a male chaperon and are required to get permission from a male guardian to study, travel or work.

Saudi officials reportedly were stricter than usual this year, even stopping women traveling with their husbands, apparently because they had different last names.

Solutions to poverty, population growth, global warming [Google+ Hangout]

As experts from three continents convene this week at UC Berkeley to discuss rapid population growth, climate change and other intractable problems, The Times will hold a live online video discussion -- via Google+ Hangout -- Thursday on potential solutions.

The newspaper explored such issues around the world in its recent five-part series on population growth in the developing world. Among other topics, the "Beyond 7 Billion" series examined chronic hunger and mass migration in East Africa -- trends that Dr. Malcolm Potts believes will soon extend across the Sahel, an arid region of Africa just below the Sahara desert.

LIVE VIDEO DISCUSSION: Join us at 3:30 p.m. Thursday

"What you've been seeing from Somalia is going to happen in all those countries, all the way across from the Red Sea to the Atlantic Ocean," said Potts, a UC Berkeley professor of public health. "You've just seen a fraction of what's going to happen in the next 10 or 20 years."

Potts, who co-organized the conference focused on the Sahel region, will join The Times at 3:30 p.m. Pacific time Thursday to discuss solutions to the problems facing this part of Africa and other impoverished nations with soaring populations. He will be joined by Dr. Ndola Prata of UC Berkeley, William Ryerson of the Population Media Center and Fatima Adamu from Usmanu Danfodiyo University in Sokoto, Nigeria.

We invite you to join the conversation by posting comments or questions below, on The Times’ Facebook and Google Plus pages, or on Twitter using the #asklatimes hashtag.

-- Kenneth R. Weiss

Photo: Somalia refugees, driven from their land by sectarian violence and drought, gather outside the United Nations' camps in eastern Kenya. Credit: Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times

Demolition of Nigerian shantytown leaves thousands homeless

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- In the shadow of the Third Mainland Bridge in the Nigerian city of Lagos, fragile wooden huts have stood for decades on stilts above the water like long-legged birds. Beneath steaming traffic jams, the people of Makoko drift across the muddy lagoon in canoes, casting nets for fish.

But after giving residents 72 hours to leave their homes, state authorities began demolishing the shantytown a week ago. Community leader Timothy Huntoyanwha was shot to death by police Saturday as protesters resisted the demolitions, sparking new demonstrations Monday.

It's just the latest of many evictions of poor and marginalized communities in shantytowns as slum dwellers come under increasing pressure from property developers. Amnesty International has often criticized Nigerian authorities over the evictions.

This is not the first attempt to wipe out Makoko. Similar demolitions and evictions took place in 2005. In a notice of eviction earlier this month, Lagos authorities called the shantytown "unwholesome" and out of keeping with Lagos’ "megacity status." Lagos Gov. Babatunde Fashola said there were plans to build something much grander.

At least 95 killed in Nigerian tanker explosion

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- At least 95 people were burned to death in Nigeria's oil-rich Rivers State when a petrol tanker that overturned and spilled fuel on a highway exploded, officials said.

The blast happened as dozens of people gathered around the crashed tanker, trying to recover the gasoline leaking into containers, a spokesman for the Federal Road Safety Commission, Kayode Olagunju, told local media.

Nigeria has experienced many similar catastrophes in the past, including explosions at fuel pipelines where people try to siphon off fuel.

The Federal Road Safety Commission reported that 95 people died and 18 were injured. However, Nigeria's Vanguard newspaper quoted a local witness who said he counted 98 bodies. Children and pregnant women were among the dead, the newspaper reported.

Nigerian plane reported engine trouble before crashing Sunday

 
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- The toll in Sunday's plane crash in Nigeria, which killed all 153 on board, may be scores higher once fatalities on the ground are established, according to Nigerian media reports.

PHOTOS: Nigerian plane crash kills all 153 aboard

Officials of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority said the pilot reported engine trouble shortly before  Flight NJ992 went down as it was nearing the airport in Lagos, the country's commercial capital, according to local media reports.

The number of people on the ground killed when the Dana Air Boeing MD-83 crashed in a crowded residential neighborhood is not clear. President Goodluck Jonathan visited the scene Monday after declaring three days of mourning and ordering an investigation. Nigerian flags flew at half staff Monday.

The aircraft lost altitude rapidly and plowed into a residential building and a printing works before bursting into flames.

"The fear is that since it happened in a residential area, there may have been many people killed,"  Yushau Shuaib, a spokesman for Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency, told the Associated Press.

At least 140 believed dead as plane crashes in Lagos, Nigeria

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- A plane crashed after takeoff on Sunday and ran into buildings in Lagos, Nigeria's biggest city, with at least 140 people on board, news agencies reported.

The head of the Civil Aviation Authority, Harold Demuren, said there were no survivors, Nigerian newspapers reported.

The Dana Airlines plane was traveling from Lagos, the country's commercial hub, to Abuja, the capital, one of the country's most important air routes.

The plane did not to appear to have nose-dived into the ground, but seemed to have landed on its belly, the Associated Press reported. It first crashed through a furniture shop and then into residential buildings in a densely packed neighborhood.

The nose of the plane was embedded in a three-story apartment building, damaging only one part of the structure, the news service reported. Fire still smoldered as a group of men stood atop the landing gear and took pictures with their mobile phones.

Some news reports indicated that 140 to 150 people were aboard the flight. The local newspaper Vanguard put the number at 153.

Vanguard reported the plane struck a power line before hitting the first building. It said three buildings had been burned in the ensuing fire. Another local newspaper, This Day, ran an image of clouds of thick black smoke billowing from the crash site.

There is no information on casualties among people inside the buildings.

The crash came a day after a Nigerian cargo plane overshot a runway in Accra, the Ghana capital, and hit a commuter minibus, killing 10 people.

ALSO:

Egypt's Hosni Mubarak gets life sentence

Remembering a young Syrian filmmaker killed in Homs

Syrian President Assad: Not even 'monsters' kill so wantonly

--Robyn Dixon

Photo: A picture taken with a cellphone camera shows residents of the Iju district of Lagos gathering at the site where a Dana Airlines aircraft crashed. Credit: Agence France-Presse / Getty Images

 

 

 

 

Must Reads: Acid attacks, rebels and the Mexican drug war

From the plight of Pakistani acid attack victims to Syrian rebels girding for war, here are the five stories you shouldn't miss from last week in global news:

Syria rebels say they're preparing for war

Pakistan offers little justice for victims of acid attacks

Mexico drug war displaces families in Sinaloa highlands

Chen Guangcheng is gone, but his village stays locked down

Nigeria Islamic group Boko Haram spreads fear far and wide

-- Emily Alpert in Los Angeles

Photo: Female students stand May 12 in a burned classroom at Maiduguri Experimental School, which was set ablaze by the Islamist group Boko Haram -- whose name means "Western education is a sin" -- to keep children away from school in northeastern Nigeria. Credit: Pius Utomi Ekpeipius / Agence France-Presse / Getty Images